You read that right: Each purchaser of a £500 bottle of End of History not only gets to be among the few to savour a nettle- and juniper-flavoured beer that has been jacked up to 55% alcohol, he also gets a souvenir in the form of preserved roadkill.

With self-described “postmodern” beer-makers like Scotland’s BrewDog running around, these are bound to be confusing times for the beer drinker. You are likely to have questions, and I have tried to anticipate them.

Is this a stunt?

Yeah, pretty much. BrewDog have released what can only be described as stunt beers, designed to gain attention for their more conventional varieties, before. (Conventional is relative: Their Tokyo* Intergalactic Fantastic Oak Aged Stout is 18.2% alcohol itself.)

Their last trick was a “Nanny State” beer that was just 1% alcohol, but since these lads are, like, extreme, it was also off the charts in terms of bitterness.

They’re only releasing a few bottles of the End of History, so this is not the BrewDog product you are personally likely to try.

Would the dead animal beer be any good?

I doubt it. The only BrewDog beer I’ve tried is the Punk IPA, which did not impress me, to say the least: Too bitter and lacking body, it was no more balanced than the mind that came up with the idea of serving beer out of former mammals.

Why hasn’t anyone done this before?

I imagine most jurisdictions frown on putting the word “beer” on the label of a product that is considerably stronger than most spirits.

And while I abhor nanny state regulation as much as this merry band of Scots, the authorities do have a point in this case. It is pretty much impossible to make beer above 20% alcohol. You can’t actually brew a beer this strong; you have to make beer and then manipulate it.

Why? Because yeast usually dies at the point in the brewing process when the alcohol percentage hits the high teens (at the very most). Nature decides when it’s time to bottle the stuff.

The BrewDogs have cheated death (that is, the death of yeast) by freezing their beer and then removing the frozen water (that is, ice). This leaves behind the alcohol and other residual stuff that gives beer its flavour, such as oils and sugars.

This process, called freeze distillation or “jacking,” is what gives us ice beer. It also turns cider into applejack. And applejack is considered to be apple brandy — it is no longer cider. Therefore I would argue that End of History is not a beer. It is a barley brandy. Or if you want a cool name for it, how about “barleyjack”?

Bottom line: If they put me on the Guinness World Records committee or whatever, I would not allow End of History to be named the strongest beer ever brewed.

Should BrewDog keep experimenting?

Yes. In my view, brewing is too conservative an industry. Only by creating weird products will anyone discover something weird and wonderful.

Can I buy this beer?

If you’re Canadian, no. You can’t order booze from other countries through the mail. As for ones that come in stoat-bottles, well, nice try.

So you’ll also be S.O.L. when the Russians cook up a vodka that comes in the stomach of a dead polar bear.